Written Answers Friday 14 January 2005

Scottish Executive

Education

Mrs Margaret Ewing (Moray) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what financial support is available to the parents of schoolchildren who have food allergies.

Euan Robson: There is no specific funding stream available to support the parents of schoolchildren with food allergies. However, a range of gluten-free foods is available free on prescription, and under Hungry for Success, the Executive’s school meals programme, schools are encouraged to cater for the diets of children with allergies at no additional expense.

Drug Misuse

Miss Annabel Goldie (West of Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-3925 by Hugh Henry on 20 November 2003 and in light of the statement in Review of Drug Treatment and Rehabilitation Services: Summary and Actions that "waiting times remain unacceptably high in some parts of Scotland", how many (a) residential and (b) non-residential drug treatment places are available in each local authority and whether it now has information on what the average waiting times are in each local authority.

Hugh Henry: This information is not held centrally.

  Information on "treatment places" for drugs services is not collected.

  Average waiting times are not regarded as a particularly effective measure of the availability and efficiency of drugs services.

  Our national initiative to improve the collection and monitoring of waiting times for drug services in Scotland will, therefore, provide the Executive and Drug Action Teams (DAT) with details of the number of people who wait for less than one week, less than two weeks, and so on, for up to four different treatment and support interventions by DAT area.

  The first set of provisional reports from the information available is shown on the Drug Misuse Information website at http://www.drugmisuse.isdscotland.org/wtpilot/waiting.htm.

Gaelic

Rob Gibson (Highlands and Islands) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will publish statistics on the number of Gaelic-speaking teachers not currently teaching through the medium of Gaelic.

Peter Peacock: The Scottish Executive has published statistics on the number of Gaelic speaking teachers not currently teaching through the medium of Gaelic. This information was published in July 2004 in the Scottish Executive’s survey of Scottish teachers "Teachers in Scotland 2003". The following information was included in this publication.

  Primary School Teachers by Ability to Teach Through Gaelic, 2003

  

 
Able to Teach Through Gaelic
Currently Teaching Through Gaelic


Aberdeen City 
7
5


Aberdeenshire 
1
0


Angus 
1
1


Argyll and Bute 
15
8


Clackmannanshire 
0
0


Dumfries and Galloway 
0
0


Dundee City 
0
0


East Ayrshire 
5
4


East Dunbartonshire 
6
3


East Lothian 
0
0


East Renfrewshire 
1
0


Edinburgh, City of 
7
5


Eilean Siar 
77
44


Falkirk 
0
0


Fife 
1
0


Glasgow City 
17
13


Highland 
69
55


Inverclyde 
1
-


Midlothian 
0
0


Moray 
0
0


North Ayrshire 
1
0


North Lanarkshire 
9
5


Orkney Islands 
0
0


Perth and Kinross 
1
1


Renfrewshire 
2
1


Scottish Borders 
0
0


Shetland Islands 
0
0


South Ayrshire 
0
0


South Lanarkshire 
7
4


Stirling 
3
3


West Dunbartonshire 
0
0


West Lothian 
3
0


All local authorities 
233
152



  Secondary School Teachers by Ability to Teach Through Gaelic, 2003

  

 
Able to Teach Through Gaelic
Currently Teaching Through Gaelic


Aberdeen City 
2
1


Aberdeenshire 
1
0


Angus 
1
1


Argyll and Bute 
2
1


Clackmannanshire 
0
0


Dumfries and Galloway 
0
0


Dundee City 
0
0


East Ayrshire 
0
0


East Dunbartonshire 
2
1


East Lothian 
0
0


East Renfrewshire 
0
0


Edinburgh, City of 
2
0


Eilean Siar 
40
7


Falkirk 
0
0


Fife 
1
1


Glasgow City 
2
0


Highland 
32
10


Inverclyde 
1
0


Midlothian 
0
0


Moray 
2
0


North Ayrshire 
0
0


North Lanarkshire 
3
2


Orkney Islands 
0
0


Perth and Kinross 
1
1


Renfrewshire 
2
0


Scottish Borders 
0
0


Shetland Islands 
0
0


South Ayrshire 
0
0


South Lanarkshire 
4
1


Stirling 
0
0


West Dunbartonshire 
1
0


West Lothian 
1
0


All local authorities 
101
26

Gaelic

Rob Gibson (Highlands and Islands) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what action it is taking to persuade Gaelic-speaking teachers to teach through the medium of Gaelic.

Peter Peacock: In order to address the need for Gaelic teachers the Scottish Executive is taking action in a number of areas, including encouraging local authorities to persuade Gaelic speaking teachers to teach through the medium of Gaelic. The Scottish Executive’s teacher recruitment campaign in 2005 will include an emphasis on recruiting teachers that are both able and willing to teach through the medium of Gaelic. The Scottish Executive is also funding a course at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig to assist Gaelic speaking teachers to transfer to Gaelic-medium teaching. This course will be available for on-line delivery in 2005. In addition, in the Scottish Executive’s teacher induction scheme, every effort is made to allocate newly qualified Gaelic speaking teachers to Gaelic-medium teaching posts.

Mental Health

Mr Adam Ingram (South of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what training opportunities are available for people with a mental illness to assist them in finding and retaining employment.

Allan Wilson: I refer the member to the answer to question S2W-11377 on 26 November 2004. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search .

Mental Health

Mr Adam Ingram (South of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what initiatives are in place to ensure that mental illness does not become a barrier to employment.

Allan Wilson: The "See Me…" anti-stigma campaign, funded by the Scottish Executive, seeks to challenge and eliminate the stigma and discrimination that can be associated with having a mental health problem, including where this relates to employment. The National Programme for Improving Mental Health and Well-Being funds activity to promote mental health and well-being in the workplace. Training to raise employers’ awareness of mental health and well-being is being developed in partnership between Scotland’s Health at Work and the Scottish Development Centre for Mental Health.

  In Scotland, Jobcentre Plus provides a service specialising in support for jobseekers with disabilities, including those with mental health illness, and also offers the voluntary New Deal for Disabled People programme to support people on incapacity benefits who want to work. Sustained support towards employment is also available to Incapacity Benefit claimants in the Pathways to Work pilot in Renfrewshire, Inverclyde Argyll and Bute. The pilot will be extended from October 2005 to Glasgow, Lanarkshire and East Dunbartonshire.

Protection of Children (Scotland) Act 2003

Christine Grahame (South of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether an independent assessment has been carried out on the likely impact of the Protection of Children (Scotland) Act 2003 on children’s activities from 10 January 2005 onwards.

Euan Robson: A regulatory impact assessment on bodies likely to be affected by the legislation was carried out prior to the introduction of the Protection of Children (Scotland) Bill in September 2002. The results of that assessment were published in the Financial Memorandum accompanying the bill.

Renewable Energy

Richard Lochhead (North East Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of (a) electricity, (b) heating and (c) transport fuel used by it is generated from renewable sources.

Mr Tom McCabe: (a) 100 percent of electricity consumed by the Scottish Executive was generated from renewable sources.

  (b) 4.4 percent of the energy used for heating the 14 largest Scottish Executive buildings was generated from renewable sources. Data is not held centrally for the remaining smaller premises.

  (c) Only a trivial proportion of business travel mileage by Scottish Executive vehicles in 2003-04 was fuelled by renewable sources. However, 80% of the Executive fleet comprises alternatively-fuelled or dual fuelled vehicles. These primarily use LPG which, while more environmentally responsible than petrol or diesel fuels, is still non-renewable.

Correction

The reply to question S2W-7188, which was originally answered on 21 April 2004, has been corrected: see page 3977 or http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/pqa/wa-05/wa0110.htm.

  

Following are statistics on parliamentary questions and answers for the period from 01/10/2004 to 31/10/2004



  

 
Scottish Executive
Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body
Total


Total questions asked
760
10
770


Total questions answered
445
7
452



  

Total non-recess questions answered (breakdown)


Answered within:
Scottish Executive
Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body


0-10 days
108
1


11-20 days
67
1


21-30 days
8
0


31-40 days
29
0


40+ days
3
0


Total answered
215
2



  

Total recess questions answered (breakdown)


Answered within:
Scottish Executive
Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body


0-20 days
190
3


21-30 days
30
0


31-40 days
2
0


40+ days
8
2


Total answered
230
5



  

Following are statistics on parliamentary questions and answers for the period from 01/11/2004 to 30/11/2004



  

 
Scottish Executive
Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body
Total


Total questions asked
854
11
865


Total questions answered
1143
15
1158



  

Total non-recess questions answered (breakdown)


Answered within:
Scottish Executive
Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body


0-10 days
538
15


11-20 days
78
0


21-30 days
3
0


31-40 days
9
0


40+ days
24
0


Total answered
652
15



  

Total recess questions answered (breakdown)


Answered within:
Scottish Executive
Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body


0-20 days
309
0


21-30 days
136
0


31-40 days
29
0


40+ days
17
0


Total answered
491
0